The hoop snake can be distinguished from a regular snake
by the way it moves. When a hoop snake travels around, it grabs its tail
(with the poison stinger at the end) in its mouth and rolls along until
it sees something it wants to sting. Then, it whips the stinger out of
its mouth quick enough and lashes out with its tail.

The hoop snake is far more venomous than any diamondback rattler. It
has a stinger on its tail and anything that stinger touches can be sent
straight to the undertaker's. Hoop snakes can kill a 200-pound man, or a
2,000-pound bull. Hoop snakes can sting a giant tree and kill it. I've
been shown that 100-foot poplar trees in Alabama have died from hoop
snake stings.

It had been my belief that the last hoop snake in Hoot Owl
Hollow was killed in 1963 as shown in the photo on the right. It is
evident that one is back in this vicinity, possibly one rolled over from
Georgia undetected.

This bowl was originally 36 inches in diameter. After
applying a varnish to the bowl and leaving it over night to dry, my
suspicions were confirmed – the tree it was turned from had been
struck by a hoop snake. The tree was about 40 inches in diameter and I
spent much time sawing and chiseling the block so I could turn a 36-inch
bowl from it. Several days of work went into the turning and sanding.
Finally it was ready for varnish.

The wood had been struck by a hoop snake and the poison
caused the tree to swell from 10 inches in diameter to about 40 inches.
The bowl was turned to 36 inches. I used turpentine to thin the varnish
and the turpentine caused the swelling to go down and the next morning
the bowl was less than 8 inches in diameter

It is evident that the tree was, in fact, struck by a hoop
snake. The stinger mark is clearly seen in the photo on the left. The
wood around the stinger mark is more advanced in decay than the rest of
the wood. The discoloration of the wood directly under the stinger mark
as seen in the photo above is unmistakably the effect of the poison.

My signature below attests to the fact that I fabricated
this story and bowl on December 27, 2003.